Chapter 25

[A/N: I fell asleep so couldn't post it in schedule 😓😒. Anyway, here's the chapter🙄🥳]

Discord— https://discord.gg/sek3gZV2jg

….

[6 months later]

–General Pov–

A medium-sized pirate ship was just about to enter Heaven's Gate. It had around 20 people on its deck. Flying a jolly roger with long black hair under a pirate hat, along with lipstick on its skull-lips. It was named the Karakiri Pirates, they have come here after passing the "Summit of the High West".

….

"Haahh… Well, we got lucky." A woman with long black hair said as she released a long breath. A while back, it was pretty dangerous for them to come through the "Summit of the High West'', even though it is said to be a convenient way to reach the sky.

They were lucky that they had 2 devil fruit users on their crew, or some of them might have lost their life.

{A/N: There is no information on what the "Summit of the High West '' is, though it is confirmed that it is something akin to a convenient, yet dangerous route to Skypiea… I will have to go with a common theory in that case, according to which, it is a 10 thousand meters tall mountain similar to reverse mountain, and is connected to the Sky's Milky Road..}

"Oh, Raia." A man in his 30 said as he hugged the woman from behind. "With your and my devil fruit powers, it was obvious that we will come out alive from that place." He said as he kissed her hair. "But let's forget about it, for now, we have finally reached the legendary sky island, Skypiea!" He said pointing in front of them.

As he said this, the black-haired woman Raia looked ahead. As the gigantic construction with the name "Heaven's Gate" carved on it entered her views.

She smiled seeing this, however, a blush also appeared on Raia's face, as she put her hand above the hands hugging her abdomen. "Hey…" She said in a hardly audible voice. "The crewmates are around… Don't do this here, Rhanes..." She said as she slowly started to remove his hands, however, he just held them tighter.

"Relax~... They are completely fine with this." The man named Rhanes said as she looked around her. The crewmates were just giggling from the sidelines.

Raia just sighed.

She is from a small island from the paradise side of the Grandline, but a few months ago, her adventurous side took over, and she decided to sail the sea. After that, on her journey, she met many people and now, she even had her own crew…

Looking towards the man behind her, Rhanes, a sweet smile blossomed on her face. He was her first crewmate. They have gone through many life-threatening situations together. Around a month ago they decided to come to sky island. But before they started their journey, Rhanes had proposed to marry her.

Her smile became more apparent as she looked at the gate ahead of them. She had accepted his proposal, however, she will only marry him when they settle down after visiting Skypiea… She decided to disband her crew when they returned from Skypiea.

So she was a little sad, yet very excited to finish this journey and go back to her home, marry the man she loves, have children and live a happy life. Just a few more days….

«…*...»

The Shandian tribe chief was sitting at the checkpoint inside Heaven's Gate. But he wasn't alone, as Gan Fall was also there while wearing his knight armor.

Currently, they were playing chess.

"Gan Fall, you are coming here quite frequently?" Chief asked while he made a move using his Queen.

After Amon took over, the first thing he did was to change the gate-keeper of Heaven's Gate, a mentally-ill old woman named Amazon. Since the chief didn't have any duty these days, also because of Amon's specific decree, he is the one who mostly stays here.

"Hmm…" Also making a move, Gan Fall snickered. "Hahaha. You are bad at this, Mr. Chief." He said.

On the other hand, Gan Fall, after he lost to Amon, left and went to a secluded part of Skypiea, where a small chunk of vearth laid. Now, he lives there while passing most of his time watering his pumpkin garden and doing his job as a Sky Knight, a mercenary who protects travelers from outside harm.

He chose this job thinking that the Shandians will continue their attacks on random blue-sea visitors, however, in the past year he hasn't found a single case of the Shandians attacking outsiders. He was very relieved to see this, though he was also a little sad that he couldn't earn much Extol(Skypiea currency) because of this… Nonetheless, he was more than happy.

Now, searching for people to protect like a knight in shining armor, Gan Fall flies with his Pegasus. But since he can't find anyone asking for help, he sometimes stops here and plays chess with the chief.

Though he was a bit wary if he should really talk to his former enemy who might still hold a grudge against him, or not. As time passed and he kept seeing him spending his time alone every day, Gan Fall one day decided to have a conversation with him. Thus, the romance of two old men began...

In truth, unbeknownst to the both of them, the reason Amon specifically made the chief into the gate-keeper was that he had already foreseen this kind of development… After all, this development already occurred in anime.

*Splash!*

Suddenly, seeing the turmoil of sea current, both Chief and Gan Fall noticed the arrival of a pirate ship, causing Gan Fall to grip his lance for a possible fight.

«…*...»

"Wow… Look those two old men have wings on their back…" Rhanes said from the front of the ship, as it was going forward at a very slow pace.

Soon the ship stopped in the middle of the gate since the water current was almost non-existent here.

Looking at the two old men in the check-point like place, Raia went in the front of the ship. And loudly shouted, "Hey! Is this the sky island Skypiea?!"

"Huh? Yes, young lady, you are at the right place, but for you to pass this gate, you have to pay money. Since, as you can see, your ship won't move without our help." Chief replied, pointing at the unmoving ship.

"What if we don't pay?" Rhanes asked, crossing his arms. They were pirates after all, what kind of pirate would follow the rules?

"Of course, you can also not pay, and we will still help you get onto Angel Island." This time, Gan Fall replied as Rhanes eyes lit up. "But," the Chief stated. "You guys will be labeled as criminals and the White Berets-Err, some people similar to marines will be after all of you." This time, the chief answered.

"Huh?!" Rhanes exclaimed his shock.

However, Raia stopped him. "How much should we pay?" She calmly asked towards the old men.

"Oh, good decision." The chief instantly replied. "You have to pay 10 Billion Extols per person..." Chief said as Gan Fall frowned.

Though the Shandians have stopped attacking pirate ships randomly, they have increased the 1 Billion entry price to 10 Billion…. "Sigh…" However, he just sighed. He wasn't the God anymore, he shouldn't meddle in these political things anymore.

"T-Ten Billion Belli?!" Rhanes exclaimed in pure shock. Even though they had devil fruit users, they were just a small pirate crew who hadn't even seen 500 million bellies, let alone 10 Billion!

"Uh! It's not Bellies." Chief corrected. "It's Extols. If you want to pay with Belly, then you can just pay 1 million per crew member.

Though Rhanes was still shocked since they have 20 crewmembers, meaning it will still need 20 million bellies for them to enter, Raia started to think about his words carefully.

Her eyes twitched as a plan hit her head."Umm…" Clasping her hands behind her back, she looked ahead. "Are there any discounts?" She asked towards the old men, as she took a seductive pose.

However, they just ignored her, as the chief said, "Yes, you can get 25% off for the whole crew if there is one person with devil-fruit. If there are two, then it will be 50% off." He said. Then he took out a paper, or rather, a form.

"If you have devil-fruit, then you'll have to fill this form with your devil fruit name and the eater's name..." He said. "You see, we Skypieans respect the devil-fruit users a lot." Gan Fall looked at him suspiciously. "Err, or at least God does."

Though they didn't understand what he meant by "God", they instantly became happy. Though 10 million was still a lot of money, they felt this wasn't much to spend for their last island.

Rhanes, seeing this immediately declared, "Yes, yes, we have 2 devil fruit users, give us two forms!" Raia frowned seeing this, is it safe to let out the news that they are devil fruit users so easily?...

'Sigh… Maybe I'm just thinking too much.'

Soon, they took 2 forms and filled them with their Pirate crew name, the holder of the devil fruit names, and the name of the devil fruit of the respective person. The woman named Raia had the "Sharp-Hair-Sharp-Hair fruit". While the man named Rhanes had the "Bone-Claw-Bone-Claw fruit".

After filling the form, the chief kept a copy of the two papers and gave one to them. As they paid 10 Million Belli.

Soon after, a Speedy-Shrimp came and pulled their ship towards the angel island.

….

"Wow, it is rare to see visitors with a mystical devil fruit coming here. In fact, I think this is the first after Amon took over." Gan Fall said, as chief, went to his table and entered the two papers into a [Fax Dial].

The fax was then sent to Amon.

…..

*Zzzt*

Hearing the sound coming from the [Fax Dial] on his side, Amon, who was wearing a pair of glasses, stopped reading a book with "Advanced Biology" written on its cover. Soon, two papers came out of the [Fax Dial] , they contained the information the two pirates just provided.

Picking up the papers from his table, and seeing the devil fruit and its user's name, Amon smirked.

"Though the fruits are lame, I'm not looking for devil fruits as of now, rather, I'm looking for 'a user', yet I just found 'users' ." He said as he got up from his seat.

Time for some experiments.

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